The Silver King

King In The Woods 2

At first, I thought they had been wearing a long white hat of some sort. But when I got closer, I saw their hair was pure white. Either this was a very short older person, or this child dyed their hair. I noticed they weren't wearing any shoes and found that strange. Their feet weren't dirty from walking in the woods and I didn't see any abandoned shoes around the trail. I had no idea how they went bare feet without tearing up their soles.

Hearing my voiced they turned to face me. They were a child like I had first thought. Their hair fell over their face making it hard to see their face. I guessed they were a boy even if they had hair on the longer side. Alarm bells were ringing just in the back of my head but I couldn't ignore a lost child in the middle of the woods.

"I'm a cop. You're safe. My name is Hue." I was carrying my badge in my backpack and held it out for the boy to see. The boy still hadn't spoken or reacted in the slightest but at least he was looking at me showing he was listening.

"Are you lost? Where are your parents?" I asked as gently as I could. I couldn't blame the boy for being scared of a random man coming up to him in the woods.

I hoped he trusted me enough to bring him to the ranger's station so we could get help. We had to find out where the boy's family were, and make sure he wasn't in any kind of trouble. Protective instincts I didn't even knew I had was kicking in. I wanted to carry him out of the woods to make sure he wouldn't hurt his feet walking, but getting any answer from the kid would be a win. Best not to make him too uncomfortable. He hadn't responded to any of my questions so I got down on his level to keep trying.

"What's your name?"

"Elly."

I finally got something out of him. His voice was so soft I could barely hear it. But I had a name.

"I'm going to the rangers station. How about you come with me? If you feel comfortable with it, we could hold hands so we don't get lost."

I saw hie hands fidget a little at the end of his large sweater as his eyes darted back and forth considering what I had asked. Because I had gotten down a bit lower, I could see his eyes through his white hair. His hair wasn't dyed. He was albino judging by his pink reddish eyes. A rare condition I had never seen in person before. I heard people with the condition had bad eyesight. It would be dark soon and I was surprised there was still light after how long we spoke for. Holding hands would be a good idea if he couldn't see when the sun did finally set. He came to a decision and held out his hand to let me take it. he seemed like a shy kid so I didn't push any more conversation and took my small win.

When we started to walk, I kept an eye on the ground making sure I was guiding him away from anything that might harm his feet. I wish I had brought a pair of extra socks that day. Elly was very light footed though. He carefully walking around twigs on tip toes as if it was second nature to him. I remember not wearing shoes as a child so maybe he had just adjusted without them.

I wished I had a way to leave a note where I found him. If his parents were nearby, they would be worried. But I assumed they would go where we were headed once they couldn't find him. I had my phone on me and I was glad it still had a charge, Still holding Elly's hand, I tried to unlock my phone with one hand. It had frozen which I thought was weird. It had never frozen before. I tried to restart it and my lock screen came back on. But the clock remained the same time it was when I first checked it. The sun still hadn't set and my phone clock wasn't moving. I wanted to call the station saying I found Elly but no matter what I tried, my phone just refused to work. I shoved it into my pocket to try and use it again at a different time.

As we walked down a slope I get hit with a Déjà vu. I thought I had already walked down this slope. In fact, I just found Elly at the bottom but I ignored it. The woods all looked the same to me. I could just be getting confused by my surroundings in the dark. I was never a good hiker. But when we hiked up another slope and came down again, I was seriously starting to think a tree growing on top of a boulder was the same one we had just passed by. My throat was starting to get dry and panic was rising in my chest. Why did everything look the same? Why had the sun not set yet? And why would my phone clock not move?

I pushed those worries down. Until we passed by the same tree growing on top of the boulder a third time. I didn't want to stress out Elly who had silently been walking beside me the entire time.

"Elly could you do me a favor? I don't mean to worry you but could you stand right here as I look over that slope a head of us? I just want to look ahead. I swear I won't leave you."

The boy gave me a nod and it looked like he didn't want to let go of my hand. But he let it go and I half jogged up the trail to the small hill in front of us. When I started to walk away Elly had crouched over and started to shove sticks in the dirt.

When I saw at the top of the hill gave me tunnel vision. I thought I was going to faint. I stood staring at Elly crouched over playing with sticks. I looked behind me, and saw the same thing. This couldn't be happening. I had to be seeing things. Maybe Elly had a twin and they were messing with me?

I jogged down and walked over to the tree I was using as a land mark. I put my useless phone on top of a root. Elly was staring at me and I gave him a smile.

"Humor me." I told him. And started up the slope again.

When I reached the top Elly still had his line of sticks. But I felt a weight in my pocket. My phone was no longer on the tree root. It had returned to my pocket.

"What the hell...?" I asked slowly to myself.

I had to be going crazy. Maybe the stress had finally gotten to me. I couldn't be stuck in a loop. These things just didn't happen.

I walked down and stopped in front of Elly wondering what my face looked like in that moment. If this was really happening then Elly might know something. After all, when I found him, the loop started. But I wasn't ready to put any blame on him yet.